Nance, I've read the linked threads (verrrrry interesting, and don't see how I missed them) and downloaded Staale's figure and cube to play with. What I'm trying to get is a sparkly effect like new snow in bright sunlight. So far I've got nested Vicki2s (inner at 98%) and a temporary dress all at various stages of transparency. By messing with the highlight sizes, I should be able to get a decent inner glow. Applying the right sort of bump map to the inner figure might give me some sparkles (I don't want her to look like a small pox victim). I figure that if I can get the sparkle effect down, I can go on to mess with hair and clothing and setting and lights. But this is still so very experimental. Being able to layer textures would be a lot easier than nesting figures! Carolly